Post #4: Illustrating The Chapter Through A Picture

Prompt 15: Illustrate through a picture or a symbol, an idea scene, or some part of a chapter or the book. Explain your choice.

Grapes of Wrath: (Chapters 6-7)

In Chapter 6, Joad reaches his family's homestead but finds that it (along with all the neighboring farms) has been deserted. The only neighbor left is Muley Graves, who tells them that his family moved out to stay with their uncle, in hopes of earning enough money to buy a car and move to California. Chapter 7 on the other hand was told from the point of view of a crooked salesman telling his employees how to make the most profit by swindling people into buying broken down cars. Throughout the chapter, the salesman announces: "Good cars. Good Used Cars!" to the customers but laughs with his employees afterward (Steinbeck 83). Knowing that many families have been forced off their homesteads and are desperately trying to go out west to California, the car dealers hike up the prices and lie about the quality of the used cars. The salesmen fill engines with sawdust and replace good car parts with broken ones. This reminded me of Mr. Wormwood (who was also a shady used-car salesman) from the book Matilda by Roald Dahl, so I chose a picture of Mr. Wormwood rubbing his hands together from the Matilda movie to illustrate this chapter.

Eternal Knight: (Chapters 6-8)

After traveling for days, Hadde and Belor finally reach a Saladoran manor. However, the village there is also greatly weakened by The Wasting. The lord of the manor abandoned the village a year ago and the yeomen there act strangely. They try to break into Hadde and Belor's cottage in the middle of the night and attack them, forcing Hadde and Belor to fight back. Belor is shot and mortally wounded, leaving Hadde alone. Hadde hides at an abandoned Saladoran fort and later saves a group of Saladoran nobles -- Earl Waltas, Sir Nidon, and Squire Melas -- from a band of Kiremi warriors. Earl Waltas looks down upon Hadde as a foreigner and continually insults her even though she saved their lives. Waltas laughs when Sir Nidon names Hadde an ambassador after she shows him the Orb and requests to see the Saladoran king. After Hadde hunts a turkey on a Saladoran noble’s (Earl Crane’s) territory, Waltas argues with Nidon that Hadde should be punished for breaking Saladoran law as a poacher. Squire Melas was afraid of approaching Waltas, commenting to Hadde, “‘He’s an earl. I’m only a squire’” (Heppe 75). Because Earl Waltas is of higher rank and social status (Earl > Knight > Squire) by Saladoran law, he cannot be charged by someone of a lower rank. I chose a picture of a squire helping a knight and running errands to illustrate this part of the book because of the strict hierarchical system and emphasis on rank.